Letter of support for our own house

We are asking you to write a letter stating your support for our planning application for our own house on the same grounds as the Burren Yoga and Meditation Centre.

Background

It has taken us many years to finally get planning permission for an extension to the yoga centre which we received this month.

We are now applying for planning permission to build our own family home on the same grounds, as we are still living in a mobile home at the back of the yoga centre.

We are having difficulty dealing with the Council Planners, who have said that because I turned my original domestic house into a yoga centre, they may not give us planning permission for a second domestic house, even though the first one is now a yoga centre and we have been living in a mobile home for 10 years now.

Galway County Council look favourably on applications that have full support of the local community and also for small ecotourism businesses who bring visitors to this rural area, and who support the other small local businesses.

We are hoping to present a large number of letters of support to accompany our planning application that is due for submission on 10th May.

Content of your letter

The letter can either be addressed to Galway County Council, or the Planning Department of Galway County Council, or simply ‘to whom it may concern’.

Please state your name and your address and today’s date, and also why you support our application to build our own house on the same site as the existing Burren Yoga Centre.

Some suggestions are listed in the sections below, but even better to use your own reasons/wording.

If possible please mention that it is important that Dave and his family live on the same site as the Burren Yoga Centre as they have guests there over-night.

It is fine to have a one sentence letter of support, if you are very busy.

If you run a business, it would also help to have your letter on your business headed paper if possible.

If you were here on retreat, maybe to mention that it brought you to this beautiful area of the Burren.

Date that we need your letter by

We are submitting our application for planning permission on 10th May.

Please post your letter of support to us by then, or email it if you don’t have time to post it. Address at the end of this letter. Posting it is better, if you have the time.

Background factors

• Dave has been living here over 20 years and running the Burren yoga centre over 17 years
• Dave and his family need to live on same site as the yoga centre in order to run this ecotourism business as they have guests staying overnight
• Dave and his wife Eri and two children are living in a mobile home and are in need of their own house to live in
• The yoga centre provides a good local amenity for people to attend yoga classes, and also a chance to meet socially in this rural area
• Dave has been a member of the Burren Ecotourism Network since 2009 and is a very active member
• Dave Green Purchasing policy has an ethos of supporting local food producers
• Intrinsic to supporting and building viable communities through sustainable living practices
• The visitors to the yoga retreats bring business into this area and to the other small businesses that they visit
• The yoga centre provides employment to the cooks, yoga teachers, masseuses, cleaners, gardener and other trade’s people on an ongoing basis
• The yoga centre has been running since 1999 and is not intrusive on the neighbours
• The yoga centre is hardly seen from the road, and causes no impact on the visual amenity of the area
• Dave and his family have good relations with their neighbours and have support for building their own house
• Any other factors you can think of